Bastion of the Rutan
by Ichabod Ebenezer
Summary: Nth Doctor part 6 of 12. The Doctor finds a note from River Song buried in a time capsule along with a dying Rutan warrior. With the Tardis still refusing him entrance, he needs to find a different way to get back in time, rescue his wife(?), defeat the Rutan and save a lot of lives. That's not really enough for the Doctor though, so in his spare time, he reunites a family.
1. Getting Then is Half the Fun

Reverend Bishop stood at the bar, unhappy to be there. He was waiting for someone, and this would never have been his choice of venue for the meet. He stood, despite the available bar stools, and reached for his tonic and lime.

He paused half-way to the glass when a woman in a trench coat and heels with masses of curly blonde hair sat down on the stool next to him. "Vodka, top shelf, chilled, not iced." She turned to the reverend. "And what are you drinking, soldier?" she asked.

The reverend paused, then turned almost mechanically toward her. "I am meeting someone," he said. His eyes conveyed a certain contempt.

The blonde woman laughed breathily, a deep purr. "And now we've met. Melody Malone," she introduced herself and extended a hand, fingers pointed down.

He looked down at her hand as if he didn't know what she was doing, then he turned back to face the bar. There was a mirror at a slant behind the bar, and for a moment their eyes met in the mirror. She smiled slyly, but he looked away.

"I am a man of the cloth, not a soldier," he said plainly.

The bartender placed Melody's drink on a napkin, and Melody immediately raised it in a toast. "Onward, Christian soldier," she said and took a sip of her drink.

"Madam, I don't know why you are here, but-"

"I thought you'd never ask," she said, setting her drink down. "You see, I'm concerned about the plight of today's homeless teens, Reverend Bishop, and I've heard a lot about you and I've taken quite an interest in your program."

The reverend stiffened even further at the implied scrutiny. Their eyes found each others in the mirror again, but this time, neither looked away. "Go on…"

"Well, the rest is rather obvious, don't you think?" She turned toward him and the trench coat parted exposing a strategic amount of cleavage. I'd like to write a story about the working conditions in your factory, and the sleeping arrangements."

He turned toward her rather stiffly again, as if his neck were injured. He had the same look in his eye again, but where she had thought it contempt originally, it seemed that a rage boiled beneath his surface, one that never came through in his voice or mannerisms.

"I assure you that the work conditions in my plant are quite-"

"I'm sure they are, Reverend, and more importantly, my readers will be once they have read my story about how… humane they are."

The reverend was silent, watching Melody for any sign of her true intentions.

"Perhaps you'd like to step outside, and discuss this in private, Ms. Malone?" he finally asked.

Melody slammed back the rest of her drink and set the glass on the bar, missing the napkin. "Allow a lady to freshen up first?" She pulled some lipstick from a small clutch and looked in the mirror to apply it.

The reverend turned stiffly and walked out the back.

Melody blotted her lips on the cocktail napkin. "Bartender?" she called. "Could I trouble you for a pen?"

The bartender pulled one out of his breast pocket and handed it to her.

She jotted something down on the napkin, then placed it in her clutch with the lipstick. "Thank you, doll," she said, setting the pen down on the bar. "Do be sure the good reverend tips you well for both of us when he returns."

She followed the reverend out the back and into the alley behind the pub. "I'm not normally this sort of girl, by the way. When a man wants from me the sort of thing you obviously want, generally I play hard to get."

"I think you'd do well to write your story about something else."

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't do that," she said. Melody turned her back on the reverend. "You could say, I'm passionately involved in this endeavor."

The reverend's eyes flashed bright green then glowed dully. "You are certain I can't convince you otherwise?"

"Alas, I find myself entirely intransigent," she said with a smirk, one hand reaching into her clutch.

He raised a hand and a spark arced between the webbing of two fingers and slowly climbed up toward the fingertips, where it dissipated only to be replaced by another spark making its climb. "Then, I am sorry," he said, reaching out for her.

Melody spun around quickly. "How's this for hard to get?"

He looked down to see the barrel of a staser pistol pointed at him.

Melody fired, and the reverend flew backward with the force of the blast, landing in a collection of rubbish bins. His features slowly dissolve into a glowing green mass with slimy tentacles.

River placed the staser back into her clutch and made her way out of the alley.

Just down the street, at Grosvenor Square, there were a pair of workmen about to bury a large metal box. Melody smiled as she caught one of the workers eyes. He had been leaning on a shovel, but stood up straight as she approached.

Melody surprised the man with a kiss full on the lips, then in conspiratorial tones said, "Be a dear and pop this into the box before sealing it up for good, will you? Thank you so much."

* * *

The Doctor and Pandora pressed forward to get a good view as the historian pulled back the lid of the time capsule and reached inside.

"Our first item is," he said with a dramatic pause before pulling out his hand, "…a cocktail napkin, it appears."

This got a lot more laughter than his feeble joke had.

"What's it got on it?" someone in the crowd called out.

"Well, it's got a lipstick mark of some sort, and there's some writing on it."

"What's it say?" someone else called out.

"It says," the historian said as he adjusted his glasses, "'Hello, Sweetie'."

The Doctor's head perked up. Pandora looked at him strangely. The Doctor noticed and looked back at her. "We need to get a hold of that napkin," he explained.

"Why? Does that mean something to you? 'Hello Sweetie'?"

"Yes," he said, slightly annoyed. "It's a message from my wife. Well, might be my wife. If she's not my wife, I might have to pretend I don't know her."

"Wait, you're married?" Pandora asked, half-shocked, half-amused.

His annoyance only grew. "Yes. Well, ish. It's complicated. We both travel through time, and we keep meeting in the wrong order. We have these diaries we compare to see where we are. And there's a code. One of us will ask about 'Jim the Fish' to figure out if we're married yet.

"Jim the Fish?" Pandora laughed.

"Shh. He's pulling something else out now."

The historian set the napkin aside on a tarpaulin laying there for just such purposes. He flashed a smile at the crowd and reached back into the time capsule. He paused dramatically and said, "…And, the next item from the time capsule is…"

He pulled out an ovoid metallic item, somewhat larger than an ostrich egg. It had glistening studs in a helix pattern from top to bottom, and a seal around its midsection. "Oh!" the historian exclaimed. "It appears to be a Faberge egg! Let's see what's inside, shall we?"

The blood drained from the Doctor's face. He recognized this item and it wasn't a Faberge egg. He pulled himself out of his stunned silence and yelled, "No! You mustn't!", but he was too late.

The egg didn't simply hinge open like most Faberge eggs, but instead had a clasp on front with a pull handle just large enough to pry out with one finger. As soon as the historian did so, the top of the egg hissed open and something green and slimy poured out of the lower half and onto the historian's arm and jacket front.

"Oh, for god's sake," the historian said and set the egg on the tarpaulin. The green slimy thing was clinging to him, and the bulk of it was resting atop his still outstretched arm. He grabbed some of the bits of it dangling between his arm and his jacket and tried to pull it off.

"Stop! It will defend itself!" The Doctor pushed people aside to get to the historian as quickly as he could, but he was once again too slow.

The historian stiffened and cried out, shaking. Electricity arced across his skin. The crowd backed away, some of them starting to run. People got pushed and began to panic. Somebody screamed, and the crowd took off as one, running headlong straight away from Grosvenor Square. The Doctor held Pandora's hand to be sure she didn't run, but she was right by his side.

The historian collapsed to the ground, eyes staring, mouth open wide in a final, silent, scream of pain and terror. His body smoked.

Pandora put a hand over her mouth and nose, fighting back nausea. She turned away from the scene, but heard a squelching noise that made her look back in horror. The green slimy thing was undulating, moving slowly away from them and toward the time capsule. It was pulsating, a weak green glow as it went.

"Stop where you are," the Doctor called to it.

It stopped it's forward movement, but continued to pulsate. Two of the gooey, stretchy bits resolved themselves into tentacles as they raised off the ground, seeming to sense the air around them.

A hollow, tinny voice, seemingly coming from the blob, spoke. "We cannot fail. We must heal. How much time has passed?"

"Twenty-nine solar rotations," the Doctor responded.

"You lie!" the harsh voice called. The creature seemed to glow a little brighter.

"Doctor, what is that thing?" Pandora asked.

"Part of the Rutan Host. At constant war with the Sontaran Empire for as long as I can remember, and believe me, that's a long time."

The initial panic having died down, people were returning with their smartphones to take pictures or videos of the Rutan. One girl, a couple years younger than Pandora, was live streaming.

The Rutan started moving again, desperately this time. Its tentacles and filaments shot out toward one of the gathered humans, then dragged the central mass forward. It then shot out towards another as he came in close for a better shot.

"Back away, all of you!" the Doctor commanded. Some listened better than others, and the Rutan moved in a new direction.

"Stop Rutan, I'm warning you!" the Doctor said, but the Rutan saw its opportunity and redoubled its speed toward the girl live streaming. She screamed and dropped her phone but did not move from the spot.

The Doctor picked up the egg and pointed his sonic screwdriver at it. The screwdriver whirred and the egg sparked. The Rutan's movements slowed and the pulsating glow grew weaker then went out.

Pandora came over to stand next to the Doctor, and he showed her the inside of the egg. "The Rutan stasis pod. It must have been badly injured, the stasis pod was the only thing keeping it alive."

He tossed the pod into the recently dug hole and picked up the cocktail napkin. He turned to Pandora, holding it up so the message could be seen. "Now she'll have to let me in."

* * *

"Okay, so we get into your Tardis and travel through time. How do we find your wife based off a lipstick print on a napkin?" Pandora asked as they moved quickly through the streets toward Hyde Park.

"Because she's brilliant!" the Doctor said excitedly. He handed Pandora the napkin. "Smell that, but don't touch the lipstick."

She carefully sniffed at the napkin. There was an odor she didn't expect, somewhere between rubbing alcohol and paint thinner. "What's that?" she asked, pulling away from the unpleasant scent.

"She used her hallucinogenic lipstick. That means she's in danger. What else do you notice about the napkin?" the Doctor prompted.

Pandora turned the napkin over, "Next you're going to talk about handwriting analysis?" Then her thumb rubbed against the surface and she felt an impression there. "Wait…" she said, holding the napkin up under a streetlamp outside the park. "There's a stamp here. 'The Lamb and Hart'? I get it. You know where she was, this pub, and you know when she was there because of the time capsule, and you know who it was because of the message. But to anybody else, it's just an old napkin with some scribbles on it. That is clever." She handed the napkin back to the Doctor.

He held it in his hand as they approached the Tardis. His other hand had been in his hoodie pocket all this time, and as he stopped in front of the Tardis doors, he pulled his hand out, producing the Tardis key.

"Hello, old girl," he started. He touched the wooden frame lovingly and went on. "I'm going to need you this time, and I'm hoping we can put our differences aside. River's in trouble in 1987, and she's asking for my help." He slipped the key in the lock, then just before turning it, he whispered, "We need you."

He twisted the key, but it wouldn't budge. He rested his forehead against the doors and closed his eyes. He placed the napkin against the window pane. "Please!" he said, desperately, but quietly. "It's River." He stood in that pose for several moments, just breathing in and out. Then he said, barely audible, "I'm begging you."

He tried the key again, but it still wouldn't turn.

"Okay," he said conversationally. He pulled the key out and turned to Pandora while he stuck it back in his pocket. "Plan B it is."

He unzipped his hoodie and pulled a large folded piece of paper out of an interior pocket. He started spreading it out against the door to the Tardis. It looked like a blueprint of sorts, but sketched out on white paper with a pencil. There were notes in all the margins and most of the rooms, written in the Doctor's impeccable penmanship.

"The Black Archive," the Doctor told Pandora. "Probably the most secure structure in all of the UK. It's buried beneath the Tower of London and guarded by the most highly trained and dedicated soldiers Britain has ever produced. They practice daily the subtle art of recognizing real documents from psychic paper. It houses all the alien technology collected across the ages and deemed to be too dangerous for humanity to use or even be aware of. It was built _specifically_ to prevent my entrance, and the only way to leave is to have your memory of the interior completely wiped."

The Doctor smiled his most conspiratorial and clever smile. "Of course, every time I've been in there, I put a piece of it away in a part of my mind even I couldn't remember. That way when they wiped my mind, it would still be there, inaccessible, _except in dreams_." He paused and considered that. "At least, I have had dreams where I've been in there, and I assume that's what I had done." He waved it off as unimportant. "Anyway, whenever I've woken from such a dream, I've sketched out the areas I'd been through as best I could remember them."

"They have cameras everywhere," he said pointing at various parts of the map. "Biometric sensors that can determine human from three hundred fourteen different alien species, acoustic sensors sensitive enough to tell one heartbeat from two, heat sensors, sonic dampeners, artron detectors, laser grids — and not just the sort that raise an alarm when you trip them, more the sort that slice you cleanly in half if you aren't careful."

He paused to give Pandora time to catch up with all that. "Three different security zones, _starting_ with Top Secret, with retina scanners separating them, a rotating set of vocal call and response codes, orders to shoot trespassers on sight and worst of all, trained dogs. In short, it is absolutely impregnable."

"Why are you showing me all this then?" Pandora asked, perplexed.

"Because we're going to break in," he said with a broad smile. "Because that," he said, pointing to a square in the middle of the map, "is where they've got a bit of tech that's going to get us to 1987. I'm going to need some things."

* * *

Petronella Osgood, just plain Osgood to anyone but family, was on her way out through the multiple security checks of the Black Archive. She was always happier when her work kept her away from this place, mostly because of the scrutiny. It wasn't so bad on the way in, the point was to keep unwanted visitors out after all, but to be questioned, scanned and patted down on the way back out just seemed like overkill.

Kate Stewart wasn't known to smile often, but she smirked when Osgood had complained about it previously. "I don't know why it bothers you, it's not like you'll remember any of it afterward."

"Actually, I hate that part most of all," Osgood had said. "Last time I was driving through the West End, stuck at a light, when I looked down to find a Snorlak larva on the seat next to me. Scared me half to death before I saw the note from myself that I'd just requisitioned it from the Black Archive."

This time, however, she'd only been working with a Bernulian signal jammer, and she'd returned it for safe keeping.

"Empty your pockets please," came a voice over the loudspeaker.

Osgood took off her glasses and placed them in the bin on the conveyor next to her, then she reached into her pockets and pulled out her inhaler, her key card and her car keys on their pewter replica sonic screwdriver keychain. She placed them in the bin as well, then stepped to the next door and waited. The conveyor started up, and her possessions disappeared through a hole in the wall and into the next room.

The door in front of her buzzed and she pushed it open. As she stepped through an alarm went off and red lights began blinking in the next room. Osgood looked up in fright at the sprinkler heads in the ceiling, and stepped back, pulling the door shut.

"Sorry! Cat badge!" she called out. She fumbled at her lapel and removed the small bit of metal in the shape of a cat. She held it up in front of the camera. After a few tense moments, the conveyor moved in reverse and the bin with her possessions reappeared. She placed the cat badge in the bin and walked back to the door. The conveyor moved forward, and the door buzzed again. She stepped through without alarm this time. The door closed and deadlocked behind her.

A blast of hurricane force wind blew through her, and industrial fans hidden somewhere along the edges of the room sucked out and analysed any particles that came free. The walls glowed bright in the UV for several seconds, then again in the infrared.

"Arms out, hold still, close your eyes," came the voice over the intercom.

Osgood sighed and did her best impression of a lower case t. She couldn't help but picture herself naked, as the soldier would see her. Her only consolation was that when he went home at the end of his shift, he'd have his mind wiped too. A red laser spread out at foot level, then swept up her body. She closed her eyes, and felt a tingle as the beam passed over her bare hands, then her face. It switched direction and swept her again from left to right.

An alarm went off again, different from the last and louder this time.

Osgood opened her eyes and patted herself down. "What is it this time?" she yelled over the alarm. She didn't think there was anything foreign on her.

The intercom came on again. "It's not you ma'am. Intruder detected in the Archive, ma'am."

Osgood rushed to the conveyor and stuffed her belongings into her pocket and put her glasses back on. "Is it human?" she yelled.

"No ma'am. Identification pending."

Osgood went back to the door she'd just come through. "Open this up!"

"That's against regulation, ma'am," the soldier said.

"Sod regulations, there's an intruder! What species is it?" she called.

The voice was silent for a few moments. "Time Lord."

Osgood banged on the door, "Let me in!" she yelled. The door buzzed and she threw it open quickly running to the next door, which buzzed as well. She quickly ran through a third room and into the larger room where the soldier she'd been speaking with was sitting at a computer bank with a group of other soldiers.

"Call Chief Stewart immediately," she called out in general. "And turn off that alarm. We've been informed." Then she picked one in particular. "You. Sergeant Cole." She paused as the alarm shut off, and when she spoke again, her voice had softened. "Is it the Doctor?"

Sergeant Cole hesitated. "Unknown ma'am. The cameras are shutting off around the disturbance."

The alarm stopped blaring, and Osgood pulled out her inhaler and gave it a puff.

"The disturbance?" Osgood asked, coming around the desk and pushing Cole away from the keyboard.

"Yes ma'am. We haven't seen the intruder yet, but they've set off several of our systems. Binary vascular system, body temperature is right, they're giving off artron radiation, and they've been using sonic technology on the door locks, cameras and…" he trailed off, with a look of embarrassment.

"Spit it out, soldier," she said, looking at him askance.

"Our sonic dampeners, ma'am."

"It's the Doctor alright," Osgood said with a proud smile. Her fingers flew across the keys. "Where is he heading?" she asked.

"Unknown, ma'am," Cole said, confused. "He's shut off the cameras."

Osgood sighed. She brought up all the Black Archive cameras on the big screen. "And that's how you know where he's heading. He's only turned off the ones where he's been." She pointed at the black squares on the camera monitor. "See? Now if he keeps going in that direction… Sergeant Cole, what do we keep in section G3?"

"Checking," Cole said, sliding his chair over to another keyboard. He brought up a list, then moved it to the big monitor.

Osgood began scanning the list line by line. "There!" she shouted, pointing. "The Orthopositronium Mirror! He's heading back in time!" She patted the shoulder of the soldier on the phone. "Inform Ms. Stewart." Then she turned to the others in the room. "You three with me." She picked up a tablet computer and headed for the elevator.

"Shall we take up arms, ma'am?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Sure, if you want to make him laugh."

* * *

The elevator door opened and more soldiers were waiting for Osgood and the three soldiers she had with her. One of the new soldiers was a captain. She went up to him and shared the tablet with him. "Deadlock seal the doors, here, here and here. Post your men here and here. Place two more on the mirror itself. If he's taking the mirror, we need to know when he is going to. He must not leave until we have spoken, or he may wipe any one of you from history, got it?" Osgood asked.

"You heard her. Johnson, Pratt, on the mirror. Paisley, Duncan, MacNair, to the South door, Benson, Meyer and Cass, you're with me on the North. Desmond and Cole, you're on the deadlocks. Stay with Osgood. Relay her commands."

The soldiers sprang into action.

Osgood tapped on her tablet and switched it to a display of all the cameras within the target zone. If any of those cameras went out, she'd be ready to move the men there. "How are we coming with the deadlocks?" she called loudly without looking up.

"Ma'am!" said one of the soldiers, running up to her. "Ms. Stewart is on the horn for you."

He handed the phone to her and she put it in the crook of her shoulder so she could talk and manage the tablet at the same time. "Ms. Stewart?" she said into the phone.

"Is it really him?"

"Oh, it's him," Osgood confirmed.

"Which one of him?"

"We don't have positive identification yet, ma'am."

"I suppose it doesn't matter. But, how did he get in?"

"I'll ask him when he's in cuffs, ma'am," Osgood said as the continued down the hall to where Paisley, Duncan and MacNair stood.

"Not good enough, Osgood. I'm on my way. I want a full analysis of our system and a statement from all the personnel who were there tonight and haven't been mind-wiped yet."

"Afraid I have to go ma'am," Osgood said, then louder, "The camera has gone out just on the other side of this door!"

"Stand back, ma'am," the sergeant said. He pulled his gun and stood at the door, one hand on the handle. He nodded at one of his men, who removed the deadlock. He pulled the door open and pointed his gun into the hallway. Two others swept in and pointed their guns down the hallway in the other directions.

"What the…?" one of the soldiers said, lowering his weapon.

Sergeant Cole swept with his gun around the doorframe to see what Duncan was talking about.

There, whirring down the hallway was what looked like a Segway with an iPad affixed to the handlebars. Two speakers strapped to the sides pumped out the barely audible sound of two hearts beating, while a sonic device slowly revolved around the top of it. The iPad slowly cycled through a series of photos of each of the Doctor's incarnations. "I'm the Doctor," it said in a gruff, raspy voice. "I'm the Doctor," it repeated in a Northern accent while displaying a man with close-cropped dark hair and protruding ears.

Osgood peered cautiously over Cole's shoulder when she saw him lower his gun. The sonic device atop the Segway homed in on her tablet and stopped, activated, and turned off the tablet. She recognized a rift stabilizer sparking slightly, which must have been the source of the artron particles. "I'm the Doctor," the iPad said, displaying a handsome freckled man with wild hair.

Osgood slowly raised the phone to her ear. "Ma'am, we've been chasing his stunt double," she said. Osgood ducked back around the corner and reactivated her tablet.

"He's there somewhere. Otherwise there'd be no point," Kate responded.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm expanding the sensor profile now." Her fingers flew across the screen bringing up security readings across the Archive. "No ma'am, there's been no unauthorized access elsewhere." A thought occurred to Osgood. "Wait. Let me look for _authorized_ access outside G3."

"He's after another time-travel device," Kate Stewart said over the phone. "What else do we have in the Archive?"

Osgood brought up an inventory pane. "There's the time rotor, but that's only part of a working machine, and there's the —" She nearly dropped the phone. "The vortex manipulator!" she yelled to the soldiers. "Get everyone to section C4! Lock it down! Lock it down now!"

Osgood started running. The soldiers immediately responded by running as well, communicating over radio headsets with the other team. Osgood got to a door and swiped her card through the slot, but a red light came on and the door did not allow them through. "Damn, we deadlocked this one!" She turned to the soldier controlling the seals. "Get it open, now!"

He typed frantically at his device, then looked up and nodded to her. Osgood tried the card again and a green light came on. She pushed at the door and ran through. "How are we doing on the locks?" she called out.

"Area C4 is secure, ma'am," a soldier responded.

She continued running while she worked with her tablet. "Unlock door A306114! That's our entrance."

They went through an area that was rows and rows of shelving filled with wooden crates stamped with arcane hexadecimal identifiers. She made a hard left half-way down and called out, "That door better be unlocked!" She reached out with her card, swiped it and hit the door at full speed. The little light turned green the very moment before her shoulder collided with the door and it sprang open. The hallways beyond were dark, with recessed lighting along the base of the walls. She took another left, then a quick right. It opened into another large room with more bare metal shelving.

A mix of crates and cardboard boxes filled these shelves. There was a rolling cork board covered in photographs of the Doctor and his companions, and a booth in the middle of the room with a key-code controlled door on its side. She knew there was a large window on the left side, and from where she was, she could see a red glow emanating from that window.

Osgood ran quickly to the keypad and typed in her passcode. The keypad buzzed at her and a little red light blinked. Osgood pounded it with her fist and ran around to the window. The soldiers joined her there, guns drawn.

There was a man and a young woman in the box, both strangers to Osgood. The girl looked up in panic at the soldiers with guns pointed at her. She held up a wooden chest to hide behind. The man, dressed in cargo pants, graphic tee and grey hoodie had the vortex manipulator on his wrist. "Hold on to me, Pandora!" he yelled.

The girl wrapped one arm around him. He pressed several tiny keys on the vortex manipulator, then looked up at Osgood and winked.

The two appeared to shrink to nothing in an instant. A swarm of glowing dust floated around in their place and faded to nothing.

Osgood and the soldiers stood there, stunned.

"What's happening?" came Kate Stewart's voice on the phone.

Osgood slowly lifted it to her face. "Huh," she said. "Cargo pants."


	2. The Rutan Invasion

In the dark alley behind a pub, the Doctor and Pandora suddenly popped into existence.

The vortex manipulator sparked on the Doctor's arm. "Ah!" he cried and blew on it several times until it stopped sparking.

"Looks like it had just the one trip left in it," he said, holding it up to his ear.

Pandora felt violently ill and fell to all fours.

"Yeah, first time can be rough. Given a few more moments I'd have warned you, but you know. Guns and all that," the Doctor waved his hands vaguely. "Just sick it up, it'll soon pass." He patted her shoulder and wandered off, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and waving it around.

Pandora found she had nothing to sick up. She breathed deeply several times and the feeling did in fact pass. "Are we really," she said between ragged breaths, "in 1987?" She stood up and found that she was fine.

"Oh yes," the Doctor said with a huge smile. "The world's population has reached an incredible five billion, and all of them are currently walking like Egyptians. Crowded House knows the dream is far from over, and Duran Duran is downright notorious while Peter Gabriel is making it big time. Ronald Reagan is handing over the reigns across the pond, closer to home, the interest rate is 4.2%, Margaret Thatcher is starting her third term, folks are still rebuilding after the Great Southern Storm, and the recent King's Cross Fire will lead to increased Tube safety legislation." He jumped up and down a few times. "Yes, this is 1987. You can hear it," he cupped a hand to his ear, "you can see it," he pointed to some gig posters pasted to the cinderblock walls, "and you can smell it." He breathed in deeply and enthusiastically.

"Hello, what's this?" the Doctor said.

"What is it?" she asked.

The Doctor stowed his sonic in his inside hoodie pocket and squatted underneath a bare lightbulb near the scattered bins. Pandora came to stand by him. She could see a trail of green slime leading off into the darkness of the alley.

"Do you smell that?" the Doctor asked rhetorically. He leaned in closer and took another deep sniff. He got on all fours and crawled a little further along the trail and sniffed even closer. Finally he got all the way down to it and licked the alley surface.

Pandora found she did have something to sick up after all. She turned and retched. She'd never been more disgusted.

"Staser fire," the Doctor said, sticking his tongue out. "Bleh." He stood up. "A Time Lord weapon was used here." He pulled out his sonic and switched it over to ultraviolet. He pointed it at the trail, and it glowed. "Rutan blood, leading that way." He pointed with the sonic down the alley toward the street. A glowing trail led all the way out, and turned right.

"Well, let's go then," Pandora said.

"Not so fast," the Doctor said. He twisted the top of the sonic until the beam shone white. He pointed it in the other direction and illuminated the sign behind them. 'The Lamb and Hart' it read.

"That's the pub she was in! Wait, _is_ in? This time travel thing is confusing. If it happened today, do we know if she's sent it yet? If she hasn't sent it yet, and we interrupt her, will she never send it? Then we won't go back in time, so we won't interrupt her… Maybe I'd better sit down, my brain hurts."

The Doctor chuckled kindly and stowed his sonic. "Now would I do that to you? We're here half an hour after the time capsule was buried."

"Oh," she said. That made things simpler. "But then, what's the point of going in there if she's already gone?"

"We ask around. Find out if anyone knows where she's gone. You never know. If it turns up nothing, we follow the trail."

"Lead the way," Pandora said.

The Doctor went in through the back of the pub and straight up to the bar. There was one rumpled patron at a barstool at the far end. He was eating handfuls of nuts from a small wooden bowl while the ash accumulated on the end of his cigarette, and watching a match on a tiny little television hanging over the bar. He glanced over when the Doctor came in, and his eyes lingered on Pandora for a few moments, then the game regained his attention.

The Doctor slapped the bar twice quickly. "Barkeep. We're looking for a friend of ours, a woman, was in here earlier. Big bush of blonde hair. You couldn't have missed her if you tried."

The bartender was cleaning a glass with an old rag and watching the game. He looked over at the Doctor, then shared a look with the rumpled man before setting down the glass and throwing the rag over his shoulder. "Yeah. She was here. Stiffed me on her drinks."

"Ah. That was so wrong of her. Did she mention where she was going?" the Doctor asked.

"You know," the bartender said, leaning on the bar, "that's exactly the sort of question I'd answer for the man what paid her tab."

"Yes… I thought it might be that sort of question. Um, Pandora, do you have any coin on you?" he asked, turning to Pandora.

Pandora leaned in close and whispered. "Homeless means something different to you, doesn't it? Why don't you just swipe your psychic paper?"

"It's 1987. They are a primitive and largely cash based society. And the paper money has changed a lot since then, but a pound is a pound the world round. If you've got any coin, he'll take it."

The bartender leaned in close and whispered conspiratorially. "We're surprisingly modern here. We'll take plastic too."

The Doctor straightened up and said brightly, "Horse of a different color, then!" He reached into a pants pocket and produced an American Express card with a flourish.

The bartender shook his head and snatched the card from the Doctor's hand. He looked over at the rumpled man, who chuckled and drank deeply from his beer, eyes quickly returning to the match.

The bartender licked his fingers and pulled a packet of carbon paper off a stack, laid it on a sort of carriage, placed the Doctor's card on top of it, then ran a shuttle over the whole thing. He dropped the packet of paper and the card back on the bar, pulling a pen from behind his ear and setting it on top. "Middle sheet's yours," he said and returned to cleaning glasses.

The Doctor dashed off a 'John Smith' and tipped the barman twice the cost of the drinks. "So, this woman…"

The bartender turned back to him and examined the paper before answering. "Melody, she said her name was. She went out back with Reverend Bishop. Never came back in." His eyes met the Doctor's. "Neither of them, if you know what I mean." He returned the pen to its home behind his ear and stuck the paper in a different stack.

Just then someone scored on television and the rumpled man let out a very creative string of curses. The bartender turned his back on the Doctor and Pandora, having forgotten them already.

The Doctor tapped Pandora's shoulder and hitched his thumb toward the back door.

* * *

The Doctor had switched his sonic back to ultraviolet mode and was following the illuminated green trail out into the street and down the way. His train of thought was interrupted when he heard Pandora giggling. The Doctor looked up in surprise, a slight smile creeping across his face.

Pandora looked up conspicuously when she noticed he'd stopped. Then with a look of embarrassment mixed into her happiness she said, "Oh, you know. You're probably used to all this time travel stuff, but I keep reaching into my bag for my tablet to check my feeds, but then I think, 'that's stupid, there's no wifi in 1987'. But just now I was thinking, 'We're walking down Brook Street, and I don't have to worry about any cameras!'"

The Doctor nodded and went back to the trail. "Yup, no automated surveillance anywhere."

"But it's not just that. Thinking about all the bands I love, some of them are still playing London clubs right now, getting their start! It's coming on Christmas, and it's actually _cold_! Frankly, when you find your wife and take care of this Rutan thing, you can just drop me here."

The Doctor grunted his disagreement. "I recognize that you weren't entirely serious, but I'm afraid there could be damage to the timeline if you did. What if one of those bands that'll go on to make it big never make it past the club scene because of something you do now? Something simple, like just buying a ticket to the show? Then they sell out just before the guy from 2 Tone Records shows up, and he decides to go to the next club over instead?"

"Yeah. I guess," Pandora said.

"Another dead end," the Doctor said, coming to a stop and stowing his sonic screwdriver. "Here we are at Grosvenor Square. The dying Rutan whose blood trail we were following is the one from the stasis pod they dug up in 2016. We know where his trail ends."

Pandora looked down to see the plaque on the ground under which she knew the time capsule had been recently buried. Strips of fresh sod were lain all around it. "What do we do now then?" she asked.

"Well," the Doctor said, looking around. His attention was caught by a pair of figures standing in the shadows of a nearby alley, looking straight at them. "Now… we go for a walk," he said cautiously, starting off down Brook Street.

"But where to? And how do you know?" Pandora asked, walking after him.

"Don't look now, but there's a pair of concerned onlookers who happen to be walking the same way as we are."

"What? You mean we're being followed? How do you know?" she asked, catching up to walk alongside him.

"I didn't say 'followed'. But coincidentally, those two were watching us back at the time capsule," the Doctor said.

Pandora chanced a look over her shoulder.

"Why is it when someone says, 'Don't look now,' you humans always look?" the Doctor asked.

"Doctor, there's five of them now," Pandora said, worried.

"What?" he said and looked around. "Let's see if we can lose them down this alley," he said. He put a hand around her upper arm, and as they passed the mouth of the alley, he darted suddenly to the right, pulling her with him.

"Did you get a good look at them?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, they were under a streetlamp when I looked. They were all young — my age, maybe. Scraggly clothes, not suited to the weather. I'm thinking homeless, maybe a gang. Not armed though. But they all had this angry look in their eyes… no, more like contempt."

The alley took a left turn up ahead, and the Doctor and Pandora quickly got around it, then crouched down to peer out. The five figures that had been following them stepped into the alley, then turned slowly toward them and began walking. In the darkness of the alley, Pandora could see that their eyes were glowing a faint green.

"Doctor?" she said.

"I see it. Come on Pandora!" He stood up and turned, only to find that the alley ended in a brick wall just a few meters behind them. The Doctor ran to the wall. It wasn't too high, maybe three meters. He hunched down and weaved his fingers together into a sort of stirrup. "Climb!" he called to Pandora.

"I can't!" she said, holding up her box. "I'd never make it one handed!"

"Leave the box behind! What's more important? That box, or your life?" the Doctor urged. "You have to climb!"

Pandora stood there, torn. She looked up at the wall, then down at her box. She considered trying to heft it over, but wasn't sure that was safe. She looked back down the alley to see if the figures had gotten to the corner yet.

"Hurry!" the Doctor urged through gritted teeth.

* * *

"Hey!" a voice called. "Come here! Quick!"

Pandora looked around for the source of the voice. There were a pair of arms waving to her from a small opening in one of the buildings, right at street level.

"If they touch you, they'll kill you!" the voice called urgently. The arms withdrew, and Pandora could see a cellar window, just tall enough that she could squeeze her box through.

"Go! Quickly!" the Doctor whispered, pushing her toward it.

Pandora wasted no time and rushed to the window. She set her box down, then squeezed through the opening and pulled her box in after. The Doctor quickly followed her, practically diving through the open cellar window.

A young lady, no older than Pandora, quickly shoved a cardboard box through the window, then closed and locked it, quickly and quietly. "That was close," she said, then turned to them with a big smile and jumped down off the crate she was standing on.

Her hair was dyed red with black roots, and she was wearing mascara thickly around just one eye, like an Eye of Horus. She had heavy blush, just under both cheekbones, and wore an off-the-shoulder, baggy white shirt over black jeans that were heavily cut up, and a pair of saddle shoes.

"Are you guys okay? You're probably a little freaked out right now, what with the glowing green eyes and all."

"Actually we're rather more familiar with green-eyed monsters, and I don't mean jealousy. I'm the Doctor, and this is Pandora."

"Nice to meet you," she said. "I'm Phoenix, and this is Dan."

The Doctor turned to find a young man crouched nearby a furnace. He held up a hand in greeting, then returned to trying to light some crumpled up newspapers. He had curly brown hair and green eyes, and looked as though he were trying to grow facial hair. He was wearing a silk screened shirt with Nelson Mandela's face on it, and he had a flannel shirt tied around his waste. He was also wearing black jeans, but not quite as cut up as Phoenix's, and his shoes were checkerboard Vans. Once he had the fire going, he added some broken pieces of pallet board to it, then stood up and joined them.

"So what's your story then?" Dan asked.

"You first," the Doctor said. "How do you know about the green-eyed beasties outside?"

Dan didn't look inclined to answer, but Phoenix spoke up. "Because they used to be our mates. John and Dev were in Dan's band." She looked over at Dan and held out a hand.

Dan took her hand and continued the story. "We were gonna make it big, you know? 'The Run Ups'. We had a good sound. We just needed a break." He shrugged and looked down at his feet while he was talking. "But you know how it is when you don't have a following. You have to pay for your gigs, and if you draw enough of a crowd, they'll ask you back again for free. And if you do really well then… well, only then do they start talking about paying you."

"We spent all our money on fliers and paste, got us a club on a Friday no less. We hyped it up as best we could, bunch of street kids, but come Friday night and the Storm of the Decade hits. Rained like all hell. Everyone stayed home, and all our money wasted. John and Dev were hungry-"

"Well, we all were," Phoenix added, hugging Dan's arm.

Dan continued. "They were talking about quitting the band and goin' back home. I convinced them to spend a night at the Mission. They'd get fed and sleep warm, and all they'd have to do is put in a bit of work, and put up with a bunch of preachin'. They'd thing straighter in the morning."

"Me and Dan went down the Tube instead, hungry or not. He played and sang, and I danced. When the morning came we had near on forty pounds, you know, something to start back up on, but John and Dev never showed."

"We waited around for them until night," Dan said, "then we went out looking. We saw them down an alley, but their eyes were glowing all green. They had a couple kids-"

"Kids we'd seen around, but we didn't know them," Phoenix added.

"They had these kids, and they just touched them, and they died. There was this green flash, and they was dead. John and Dev started draggin' the bodies off," Dan concluded.

"We got scared, and we ran," Phoenix concluded.

Dan walked over to the fire he had started in the old furnace and started rubbing his hands together in front of it. "Next day, we saw John and Dev again, only these kids was with 'em," Dan said, "Live and well, but they didn't… feel right. They didn't walk like kids walk, they didn't move… right.

"The next night there were more, and the fourth night, still more. They're walking around like a gang of some sort. We followed them near dawn one night, and they all went to the Mission."

"What's this 'Mission'? You've mentioned it twice now," the Doctor asked.

"The Savior Mission Workhouse? You haven't heard of it? Reverend Bishop runs it. He's all over the news. Says it's his mission to get kids off the street," Phoenix said.

"Hmm," the Doctor replied. "Well I'm not sure I agree with his methods. So, why do you think you're safe here?"

"We only go out during the day, they only come out at night," Phoenix said.

"Few days after this started, we tried to confront John and Dev. They wasn't much into talkin' though. They just reached out for us with their hands. Their fingers crackled with lightnin'. They was gonna do to us what they done to the others. But this lady saved us."

"Melody Malone," Phoenix said. "She brought us here. Told us we'd be safe. She comes back every morning with a bit of food."

"She was with Reverend Bishop earlier tonight. I'm afraid she must have shot him. I must do something about that woman and her love of guns," the Doctor mused.

"And just what do you propose to do to me, Pockets?" a voice called from the other end of the room.

"River!" the Doctor said.

The woman stepped into the light. "Hello, Sweetie," she said. She had a mass of curly blonde hair, bright red lipstick, a trench coat and black high healed shoes. She was carrying a brown paper bag in one arm. As she stepped forward, she removed the coat to reveal a slinky black evening gown, deep cut and with a sparkly silver clasp at one hip to match her dangly earrings. She let the coat fall to the floor. "But call me Melody. It's best to keep one's aliases consistent, don't you think?"

She walked up to Dan and pushed the bag into his arms. "Do be a dear and warm something up for us?" she said, then turned on her heel to face the others. "Thank you," she called over her shoulder.

"Well, Doctor, you still owe me a vortex manipulator," she said.

"You can have this one right here." He removed the vortex manipulator from his arm and tossed it to her. "It's busted anyway."

River strapped the leather band to her wrist and tried a few buttons. She scowled.

The Doctor dug into one of his pockets. "Diaries out, now," he demanded.

River chuckled breathily. "Sweetie, where do you think I'm keeping my diary in this?" She spun round for effect, then she stepped forward, leaning close to the Doctor. The Doctor backed up until he pressed against the wall. River put her hands on the wall on either side of him and spoke with her lips nearly brushing his. "Besides, in this incarnation, I'm pretty sure I know where I stand with you."

"Jim the Fish?" the Doctor managed to squeak.

"Sweetie, we are way past Jim the Fish." River kissed the Doctor fully, and the Doctor's eyes fluttered shut. He returned her kiss, and the two of them stayed with their lips locked together, long enough to make Pandora uncomfortable watching.

Pandora left to find something else to do, but Phoenix and Dan were working on dinner, and she didn't want to disturb them. She walked around the room, looking at what Dan and Phoenix had managed to collect down there. There was his guitar, an Epiphany Limited in fiesta red. Certainly a beautiful instrument and worth a few pounds if he ever became so desperate. She looked back at the couple, then strummed it once. It sounded lovely.

They had a sleeping bag, which was good as gold for a homeless kid, but just the one between them. There were a couple changes of clothes too, and a couple warm coats. Next to all this was a record collection in a cardboard box.

Pandora didn't have a lot left of her father, but her mum had an old cardboard box at the back of her closet with all of his vinyls. She had absolutely freaked out one time when she saw Pandora going through them, and made her promise never to do it again. Of course, that only meant that Pandora made sure to put the records all back in order when she was done playing them. Pandora's musical tastes had been formed by these albums, a mix of reggae, rockabilly, ska and mod with a bit of punk thrown in.

By the look of these albums, they had much the same tastes as her father had. Bob Marley, the Who, the Clash, the Specials, the Beat, Madness, the Toasters, but there was one that Pandora had never heard of.

"Ever heard of Fishbone?" Phoenix asked, right over Pandora's shoulder causing her to jump. "Sorry," she said, laughing. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"That's okay," Pandora said. "I love your taste in music. No, I've never heard of Fishbone before. Are they any good?"

"Mmm," Phoenix confirmed. "I think they're rad. A little bit punk, a whole lotta ska with an American edge to them. They're something new, and I think they're going somewhere."

"American?" Pandora said, surprised. She turned it over and looked at the track listing.

"Oh, yeah. There's a lot of ska coming out of America these days. But it's hard to find. I have a mate at Hyde Park Records who managed to 'lose' this one for me. We should listen to it sometime. I think you'll like it."

Pandora was silent for a while, looking through the rest of the albums, then she finally spoke. "Phoenix, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Phoenix rolled her eyes and smiled. "No, Phoenix is not my real name, and my parents weren't hippies. I just like it. I even got a tattoo!" She turned around and lifted up her shirt to show a majestic red bird covering the whole of her lower back. Its slender crimson body was rising upward, its long wings beating away from the orange and red flames at the base of her spine.

"That's really… rad," Pandora said, "but that's not what I was going to ask."

Phoenix turned to face Pandora, letting her shirt fall back into place.

"Why'd you leave home? I mean, why are you on the street?" Pandora asked cautiously.

"My parents. Well, my mum mostly. She doesn't like Danny. She thinks he's a layabout who'll never do a day's work and he'll never amount to anything. She always used to say, 'You could be so much more than just a musician's girlfriend.' But she doesn't know Danny, she's never seen how hard he works, and she doesn't know how good he makes me feel. She wants to control everything about me, and she doesn't understand I'm seventeen now! I can make my own decisions and run my own life." Phoenix smiled shyly. "I suppose it's a common story."

"I suppose," Pandora agreed with a smile. "She sounds a lot like my mum."

Phoenix giggled. "Oh, I actually came over here to tell you the stew's ready." Phoenix took the record back and carefully returned it to its place in the box. "Come on. You might have to eat out of a mug. We don't have a lot of clean bowls."

* * *

The spoon wasn't all too clean either, but Pandora had learned to overlook quite a bit and was actually quite thankful for a mug of lamb stew with frozen vegetables. The group sat and ate silently until the stew was gone.

The Doctor cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "River and I-"

River shot him a look that could be felt from across the room.

" _Melody and I_ have been comparing notes. First off, you need to understand that your friends John and Dev are dead. Those things walking around looking like them are aliens called Rutan. They're sort of blob-like green jellyfish creature in their native form, but they can copy the look of another creature. They have trouble keeping a bipedal shape though, and tend to revert to the jellyfish when they get too stressed. There isn't some part of your friend still inside them. They haven't taken over your friends' bodies, they have killed your friends outright, and they just look like them. I don't want to see anyone getting themselves killed because you think you can reason with them. Alright?" He looked around the room meaningfully, but nobody spoke.

"Good. Now, Melody has identified this Mission as their foothold on Earth. They're taking in kids and replacing them with Rutan. We can only assume that once they get a quorum, they'll launch their attack. Obviously, the two of us have to stop them before they do," the Doctor said.

"The _three_ of us," Pandora corrected. The Doctor smiled and nodded graciously.

"The _five_ of us," Phoenix further corrected, squeezing Dan's arm.

The Doctor's face fell. "No, no, no," he said, "This needs to be a small operation. Too many people and we're sure to be caught."

"Like hell," Dan said, indignant. "Our friends have been killed. We take care of our own on the streets. You aren't keeping us out of this."

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something else, but Melody put a hand on his knee to stop him.

"You know you aren't going to convince him. All you are going to manage is to leave him behind, where he'll promptly run off on his own and do something stupid," Melody said. "Besides. This place isn't safe anymore. They followed you two here, what makes you think they aren't coming back?"

The Doctor looked like he was going to argue, but in the end he had to agree with the logic. "Alright. Now, you said they only come out at night, so the Mission will be heavily guarded during the day. Tonight won't be like other nights though. They're arriving home now to find that their leader has been killed. They'll be out tonight, and in force. As Melody points out, they're probably coming here, so we will be there instead.

"There have been no reports of meteors, or strange lights in the sky, so my bet is they got here via wormhole. They've done it before, on another planet, and it didn't end well for the natives, the Harrubtii. The Rutan genetically modified them into perfect little religious zealot warriors. The wormhole is certainly in the Mission, and probably a bio-engineering lab as well. We need to get in there, find out what we can, and destroy this end of the wormhole."

* * *

They had some time to kill before nightfall. Dan put out the few embers remaining in the furnace, and Phoenix collected the mugs and bowls from their meal, taking them to a rusty wash basin on the far end of the room. The Doctor suggested that everyone should get a bit of sleep, but everyone agreed that there was no way they could.

Pandora asked if Dan would play something for them, which seemed to brighten up his spirits a bit. He ran over and grabbed his guitar and mini-amp, but paused in his return, looking up when he heard the floor above him creaking.

"Wait!" the Doctor said suddenly. "Oh, I'm so thick! River — Melody, whatever! There was something you said earlier, something I should have caught. Something I didn't factor into our plan. When you met with Reverend Bishop at the pub, he said he was meeting someone. If that someone wasn't you, who was it?"

"I don't know… I didn't think about it," River said.

Then the two of them said together, " _The Rutan have a second leader!_ "

Suddenly there was a loud banging on the metal door. Phoenix jumped up, and she and Dan ran to the alley window. They pulled it open and reached for the cardboard box that blocked the opening. A hand reached through, grasping for Phoenix, electricity coursing across its fingers. Phoenix screamed and backed away. The Doctor grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back, then rushed forward and slammed the window shut.

The metal door to the warehouse basement continued to bang. Dust began to fall from the cracks around the doorframe. A few more hits later and they could see the door start bulging from the impacts.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and ran to the door. He ran it over the edges and returned to the group. "Tightened the molecular bonds. That should hold them a bit longer. Options?"

"They've got both exits covered," River said.

"Right," the Doctor said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. He jumped up and down. "The floor's solid, no way out below." He pulled his sonic out again, twisted it quickly and ran it over the ceiling. "Just wood, a bit weak in a few places, maybe we could break through."

"But _they're_ up there right now!" Dan pointed out.

"Good point. Anyone else? Ideas. Let's hear them," the Doctor said. He went over to stand next to River and activated his sonic, twisting it occasionally and pointing it in various directions.

Pandora ran to the furnace, now out of fuel. She banged on the pipe leading up. "What about this?" she asked. "Could we break this off and fit up there?"

"Maybe you could, and Phoenix as well, but Dan's got some shoulders on him and Melody… Well," he trailed off.

"Oh, stop pretending you don't know what has to happen!" River said. "You are only avoiding it because you wish it weren't the only option, but it is!" There were tears in her eyes. The Doctor held her by the arm with both hands, looking concerned.

"We both knew this day would come!" River continued. "From the first day I met you, but it was clear you had known me so well and for so long, I knew there had to come a time when I would die saving you! Today must be that day! I can kill the ones outside the window, then I'll buy you time to escape while I'm holding off the hoard coming through that door! It has to be me, you know it does! I'll never get them all, and if you don't make it out, I'll have died for nothing! All those times together you don't remember will never have happened, and it will be your fault! I'll shoot you myself if you don't leave now!"

"But River! There's something I know that you don't know!" the Doctor said, backing away from her.

"What is it? If you've figured a way out-"

The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver and wiggled it back and forth. "I've fixed your vortex manipulator."

River looked down at her wrist, stunned. The number four was showing there in blue, quickly replaced by the number three. She grabbed hold of Phoenix and Dan, who were within arms reach, and pulled them close. She spoke through gritted teeth, "I hate you so much some-"

"Come find us," the Doctor interrupted, and River vanished with Dan and Phoenix in a cloud of sparks.

The door burst open, and the Rutan Host, in human form, poured through.


	3. Goodbyes

The Rutan fanned out upon entering the basement and slowly approached the Doctor and Pandora. The Doctor placed himself in front of Pandora, spread his arms protectively and began backing toward the wall.

"I am the Doctor!" the Doctor shouted. "Does that name mean anything to you?"

The Rutan continued their slow, steady approach. They stretched out their arms toward the Doctor and his companion.

"I am a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey!" he continued to shout. He backed up until Pandora was pressed against the wall. He took a glance backward at her, then he pulled out his sonic and warded off the advancing Rutan with it.

The Rutans' fingers came alive with electricity, unperturbed by the Doctor's sonic.

"I am an enemy to the Sontaran Empire! I have defeated them, turned them back, foiled their plans and made fools of them more times than I can recount!"

The advancing Rutan paused uncertainly. After several moments of silence, one of them spoke. "You are the Doctor?"

The Doctor lowered his sonic tentatively. "I am."

"You stopped the Sontaran War-Wheel on Sentarion?" the Rutan continued.

"I've done a hell of a lot after that as well."

The Rutan were silent again for longer this time. The Doctor turned toward Pandora, holding up a hand and nodding reassuringly as if to say, "I've got this."

After a time, the speaker spoke again. "You are known to us," he said flatly. The Rutans' hands stopped arcing, and they lowered their arms. "Do you propose an alliance?" the speaker asked. The rest of the Rutan stood eerily still, a group of teenage boys and girls staring dispassionately at them, like a group of androids that had been put into sleep mode.

"An alliance, yes. I could talk to your leader. Stop the killing, maybe find a way to resolve this peaceably," the Doctor proposed.

Their pause this time was not as long as the Doctor expected. "Our leader will hear you. Kill the girl."

The Rutan host all raised their hands, fingers crackling, and resumed their advance.

"Stop!" the Doctor cried, standing between the advancing host and Pandora. "Stop it now! You will regret it if you try to harm this girl!"

The host did stop, but they kept their hands outstretched. "Explain," the speaker demanded.

The Doctor turned to look at Pandora, not sure what to say. He was sure she didn't know what happened when she was threatened, or what she had inside of her, and this was not the time for her to find out. The Doctor turned and raised his sonic screwdriver again. "Because I won't help you if you harm one hair on her head!"

The host stood motionless as moments ticked away. Electricity sparked off their bodies, frighteningly close to the Doctor's outstretched arm.

"We will comply," the speaker said. The electricity shut off, but the arms remained outstretched. "The girl will be our hostage against your cooperation."

The host resumed their advance. They grabbed hold of the Doctor's arm and pulled him aside, allowing others to get at Pandora. She held up her box for protection, but she was surrounded. "No! No! Get away!" she cried.

The Doctor stopped struggling, watching what would happen now that he could no longer intervene. The Rutan grabbed Pandora by the arms and dragged her toward the broken metal door that led upstairs.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed, and a look of intense curiosity came over him.

#

The Doctor and Pandora were forced into separate panel vans, emblazoned with the logo for the Savior Mission Outreach, and a half dozen Rutan joined each of them. They were driven through the streets of London, tantalizingly close to authority figures and potential help of all sorts. They quickly made it to a gated U-shaped complex of refurbished factory buildings, and were led out of the vans.

The building on the left could be seen to contain bunk beds at ground level and so was obviously where the youths were intended to be sleeping. They probably had foot lockers and bedrolls neatly folded at the foot so that any visitors would think these were being used. The building on the right still contained factory equipment, for whatever sort of labor their residents were expected to be doing. The building directly in front of them was a cubicle farm of offices.

The Doctor and Pandora had a few moments together while they were being led into the central building. "Are you alright?" the Doctor asked Pandora.

"I'm okay," she replied. "They didn't rough me up in the van if that's what you mean."

The Doctor simply nodded. He looked like he was already thinking up his next move.

"Hey," Pandora said, "why didn't we all just use the vortex manipulator?"

"Ah, well, it's only really intended for one person, you see, but how big is a person, and on what planet? It turns out it can take about 180 kilos or 400 pounds or thereabouts. Roughly three humans, if none of them are too into sumo. No way five of us could have gone anyway. River may have been able to reach me, but you were too far away and I wasn't going to leave you there alone."

"Thanks for that, then," Pandora said.

They entered the building and headed down a central aisle to a door in the middle of the office that was marked, 'Fire Exit'. It turned out to be a staircase leading down. Underneath was a long corridor with rooms branching off to each side that were originally used for storage. They passed by three pairs of doors, then opened the fourth on the left. Beyond the door, the cinderblock walls on both sides had been demolished to reveal a larger space. Two massive generators powered a ring of copper wires and rare earth magnets. A storm boiled and swirled inside. To the Doctor, this vortex looked like home. To Pandora, however, it looked like an angry, seething maw that brought up images of all the mythical maelstroms from the works of Homer, Shakespeare, Hemingway and Poe.

Out of the corner of Pandora's eye she saw a green glow that moved closer. When she focused on it she gasped and took an involuntary step backward. It was a two meter tall, floating jellyfish like creature. It had a number of tendrils dangling from its wide, glowing crown, but it also had several small tentacles and two larger ones resembling the tentacular clubs of a giant squid. It pulsated as it glided across the room.

"Oh, you beauty!" the Doctor said, a sense of wonder in his eyes. "You know, I've never seen one of you before that wasn't injured or dying. It never occurred to me you could float like that. I always saw you just sort of squelching along the ground — but this is way more impressive!"

Despite the fact that there was no obvious mouth on this creature, it spoke with a harsh voice like rocks rolling around inside a coffee can. "You may call us Mr. Stubbins." Electricity crackled across its tendrils as it spoke.

"Alright Mr. Stubbins," the Doctor said, "Reverend Bishop I get. He was in a position to collect children for you Rutan to replicate and form the beginning of the army, but who is Mr. Stubbins?"

"Who are we?" the floating creature said in a tone that sounded like amusement. Suddenly the creature shimmered, and in its place was a short man with a cheery face and round spectacles. He had a newsboy cap pulled low and a woolen scarf tucked into his threadbare overcoat. "Why, I'm just a regular fellow what does his job and gets along with everyone." His voice in this form was pleasant, and he spoke with the lilt of a man who's lived most of his life in the West Country, but softened by years in London. "I shows up to work like I done for thirty-some years, I clock in on time, and I always has a kind word for the folks I sees everyday. I'm the man what everybody likes, yet nobody really notices. I'm the man what maintains the chemical balance at Thames Water. I makes sure your water's not to hard or too soft and that just the right amount of iodine and fluoride goes into it. Sir Peter Mason may be in charge, but I'm the man with all the power."

Mr. Stubbins shimmered again and returned to the form of the giant jellyfish. "Bishop was working on a retrovirus to be added to the water supply. When it was complete, the virus was to alter humanity with certain tribal memories and instincts. Instill in them a certain religious fervor, a zealous devotion to we Rutan, the Shining Ones." The Rutan paused in its raspy rhetoric. When it went on, it held a tone of spite in its hollow voice. "Bishop had been selected for this duty because he was the greatest biochemist on Ruta III. When your female killed Bishop, he hadn't yet completed his work. We require a replacement of great skill to finish on schedule. If you, Doctor, could complete this retrovirus, we would allow you to speak to our leadership about your proposal."

"No. I want to talk about a way to accomplish what you want without deploying the retrovirus," the Doctor said.

"If you will not complete the retrovirus, then we have no use of you. Kill the girl, make him watch," Mr. Stubbins said.

"Wait! Wait, wait!" the Doctor said, coming to stand between them as best he could, given that they were surrounded. "If I complete this retrovirus, will you agree to hold off using it until I've spoken with your leadership?"

The Rutan was silent for the briefest of pauses. "This is acceptable," it said.

"Then, take us to your lab," the Doctor said.

#

The Doctor and Pandora were brought across the hall. The walls had been knocked down in this room as well, making it three cells wide. There were cabinets bolted to the walls, and a long bench with a computer, a microscope, a centrifuge, and more scientific equipment Pandora couldn't recognize, and two large machines next to the bench that apparently did the gene sequencing and growth and reproduction.

The Doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them together, seating himself on the single rolling chair. "Let's see what the good Reverend Bishop left us with, shall we?" He glided the chair across to sit in front of the microscope and peered inside. "Is this a recent sample?" he said without looking up.

"We believe it was his latest, yes," came the eerie, tinny sound of the Rutan's voice.

"Mmm, hmm, not a very happy little subject, is he?" the Doctor asked, then pushed off with one foot and glided quickly down the length of the table, braking instantly when he was in front of the computer. He tapped a couple keys and called out, "Password, anyone? No? Oh never mind, it's probably something simple like, 'Rut _III_xoxo'. I'll have it cracked in a moment." His fingers blazed across the keyboard, and in under a minute he had it. "Hah!" he cried out. "'Sont ar_$uxx', should have guessed it."

He continued typing at lightning speed, and window after window would appear and disappear to be replaced by another, until he had a rotating diagram of the virus DNA structure on his screen. "Well, would you look at that?" he said, pointing at the screen. He started biting the thumbnail of one hand as he watched the double helix spiral past. "Wait? GGACDDACDA? That can't be right…" he mumbled. A few moments later he was pointing at the screen excitedly. "Ah! AAAGDCADDAGAC. That's more like it." He sat quietly for a while more, biting his nails and watching the screen.

"Do you mind if I fast-forward to the good bits?" he asked again without looking up or waiting for an answer. He hit a few keys, and the double helix on screen rotated at least five times faster. He continued to grunt, or point at anything that appeared interesting, and a couple minutes later, it was done.

The Doctor spun around in his chair and looked the Rutan in the spot he decided was an eyeball equivalent. "Your scientist was close. I don't think he realizes how close he was. He made a few amateur mistakes, but I can easily correct them. My guess is he was going off of thousand-year-old incomplete notes from the Harrubtii incident, and assuming that human physiognomy is close enough to those insects. As it turns out, it is not. Anyway, give me a few minutes, and tell your leadership to prepare for my arrival."

Mr. Stubbins spun slowly round in place and one of the human-form Rutan stepped forward. No sounds passed between them, but the human-form nodded and left the room.

The Doctor spun around again and punted across to the gene sequence. He pressed the button to warm it up, with a flourish and a spin, then punted back across, conducting some internal orchestra, coming to a sudden stop in front of the incubator and zoomed back to the computer. He whistled out a tune as he typed at the keyboard, not stopping as he turned his head toward Pandora and winked. He spun around again and continued typing. He zoomed across to the microscope for a quick check, and zoomed right back to begin typing once more.

The Doctor continued with this activity, gliding back and forth between work stations, focused entirely on work, then taking a child-like glee as he slid toward the next. Several minutes later, he took something from one of the machines via pipette and laid it on a glass slide and placed it under the microscope. "Voilà!" he said and stood up from the rolling chair, indicating the microscope with a wave of his arm.

One of the human-form Rutan stepped forward and looked into the eyepieces. He stayed there for a few moments, then turned to Mr. Stubbins. "Looks healthy," he said. Then he turned back to the Doctor. "Show me the sequences you changed. The Doctor leaned over the keyboard and brought up a flattened and segmented version of the DNA with several numbered sequences highlighted. The human-form Rutan examined it in detail and turned again to Mr. Stubbins. "The relevant sequences have been altered as expected. I am not familiar with human physiology, but to the best of my understanding, this should accomplish what we want."

"There you have it," the Doctor said, "a shining review if ever I heard one. Now, take me to your leader."

They brought the Doctor and Pandora back to the wormhole room. "You may go and plead your case," Mr. Stubbins said, "but the girl stays here. You have our word that she will not be harmed before your return."

"And the word of the Rutan has always been good enough for me. Now, no sneaking off and using that retrovirus while I'm gone, hmm? I promise you, there will be hell to pay if I find out you've broken your word," the Doctor said sternly.

He walked over to have a quick word with Pandora. He spoke in quiet tones. "Do what they ask, within reason. Don't try to escape, and don't rock the boat. Stay safe. You gonna be okay?"

She nodded. "But are you going to be okay?" she asked quietly.

He kissed her forehead. "I'm going to be just fine. Trust me."

Two human-form Rutan took the Doctor by the arms and pulled him away from Pandora and toward the wormhole. He gave Pandora a wink and disappeared into the swirling, energetic void.

Pandora was led back toward the stairs, but they stopped in front of one of the other side doors and opened it. They pushed her into an empty cinderblock room about two meters square with a single bare bulb overhead, and closed the door behind her.

#

The architecture of Ruta III was stunning in its beauty. The stonework looked very much like rosy marble, but appeared grown like coral, rather than cut. They were fond of soaring domed ceilings and arches could be seen everywhere one looked. Bridges linked individual buildings and one got the feeling that they were high in the atmosphere. Looking over the edge of the bridge, one could see rocky spires descend into darkness below. The sun of Ruta III was a small orange dot viewed through a dense layer of clouds.

The wormhole was in a guarded chamber behind tall metal doors flanked by two enormous statues of former leaders, grown out of the same material they preferred for their building.

The Doctor was taken across the connecting bridge to a garden platform with a fountain at its center and water flowing out to the edges in five equally spaced directions. Between each waterfall was a bridge leading to another platform. The Doctor's guards led him across one of those to a much larger platform with columns lifting the highest dome the Doctor had yet seen. He was taken to the center of this chamber which was surrounded on five sides by steps leading up to five pillars, each with a Rutan floating above it, glowing serenely.

"Speak," came five tinny voices at once.

"Council of the Rutan," the Doctor began. "I am the Doctor, known enemy of the Sontaran, and potential friend to you. I come before you because of your escape route to Earth. I am familiar with your previous escape route on Sentarion and what you did to the Harrubtii people in the far-distant past. I am here to tell you that this does not have to be the way with the humans of Earth."

He paused for a moment. It was hard to gauge how his words were resonating with a bunch of faceless jellyfish. He walked forward to address the central one, assuming that meant it was the eldest one. "The humans are not so primitive as you think, and they could make capable allies. They have had run-ins with the Sontarans and live to tell the tale. A dialog could be set up with their leadership that would be mutually beneficial to both peoples."

#

Mr. Stubbins watched the machines working, tentacles trembling with anticipation. "When will we have enough to distribute throughout London," it asked.

"Soon," replied the human-form who had reviewed the Doctor's work. "But how do we know it will work? How do we know the Doctor has not betrayed us?"

Mr. Stubbins glowed more brightly, considering the other's words. "You have a point. Test it on the Doctor's companion. If it works, I will distribute it."

"But what of our agreement with the Doctor?" the other asked.

"I swore no harm would come to the girl, and she will not be harmed."

The human-form paused the machine, and a door on the front opened up to expose a sealed, transparent container, filled most of the way with a thick, clear fluid. Mr. Stubbins deftly removed the container with one of his suckered tentacles and floated to the table with it. With another tentacle, he twisted the lid to expose a tiny opening. With a third tentacle, he lifted a pipette from the table and sampled a small droplet of the fluid. He shut the lid and returned the container to the machine. He then floated with the pipette to a 10 liter bottle of drinking water in the corner of the room. He measured out a single drop from the pipette into the water, and stirred it around with one of his smaller tendrils. He up-ended the bottle into a dispenser and poured a glass of water, then glided back from the dispenser. "See if she is thirsty."

The human-form picked up the glass and carried it out of the room. He walked down to Pandora's cell, with Mr. Stubbins floating along after.

The two guards opened the door, and Pandora looked up from her spot on the floor. "I thought you might be thirsty," the boy said, offering Pandora the glass.

Pandora accepted the glass. "I am actually. Thank you," she said, and drank deeply from the glass.

The human-form Rutan crowded the doorway, waiting to see what would happen. Mr. Stubbins floated a little higher, appearing over their shoulders.

Pandora looked up at them curiously, wondering why they were all staring at her. She held out the empty glass for the boy to take.

"Well?" Mr. Stubbins asked impatiently.

"What do you wish of me, o Shining One?" Pandora asked.

"It's time for me to go to work," Mr. Stubbins said, excitedly. He shimmered and became the friendly, middle-aged bespectacled human again. He walked back down the corridor and opened up the machine. He pulled out the cylinder and, producing a thermos, slipped it inside. "Mr. Stubbins always has some coffee with his sandwich at lunch," he said to the other Rutan, who chuckled at his wit.

#

"We have heard your proposal, Doctor," said the central Rutan, pulsating with each word. "We understand that you care for these humans, and that you would prefer they not to be enslaved. We further understand that they would have a lot to gain from an alliance with the Rutan, from protection to technological advancement. However, we see nothing that we have to gain from an alliance with these humans. The possibility that they will withdraw from our alliance is far more damaging to our tenuous foothold in the Mutter's Spiral than we can risk. No, the only way to be certain of our position is to enslave this fledgling species."

"But-" the Doctor began to protest, but he was cut off.

"Furthermore, as you have completed our work on the retrovirus, we have no further use of you, Doctor."

All five voices of the leadership council spoke at once, "Kill him, and begin distribution of the retrovirus."

The guards began approaching from all sides.

"Wait!" The Doctor cried, backing away. "There's a very good reason you don't want to do that!"

"And what is that reason?" the central Rutan asked.

"Oh, it's clever! It's a very clever reason. I can't believe you haven't realized it yourself."

The guards stopped their advancement. " _What_ , Doctor? What is the reason?" the central Rutan boomed loudly.

"I don't have one actually, I've just been stalling for time!" the Doctor admitted.

Suddenly, River, Dan and Phoenix appeared in front of the Doctor. "What took you so long?" the Doctor demanded.

"I'll have you know that Ruta III is one of the most heavily warded planets in the universe!" River snapped back. "One wonders how you expected us to get here at all in the first place!"

The Doctor smiled. "I just knew you'd find a way."

River returned his smile. "Now you are just flattering me. Is it time now for shooting?"

The Doctor looked around once more at the advancing guards, coursing with electrical energy. "Yes! Now, River! Shoot!" He grabbed Phoenix and Dan by the arms and pulled them toward him.

River pulled her staser from her clutch and fired off several rounds, each one a direct hit that took down one of the guards, clearing an exit. "Move, now!" the Doctor yelled, gently pushing Dan and Phoenix. He pointed for River's benefit.

"Where's Pandora?" River asked, in between staser volleys.

"Back at the Mission, and probably in grave danger!" the Doctor yelled back. "Our only chance is to get to the wormhole!"

River cleared a path, and the four of them started running where the Doctor directed. They were being chased now by Rutan carrying elegantly curved metallic guns with three handles, wide in the center and with the same green glow as the Rutan themselves. Bolts of lightning shot out from the muzzle of these weapons, taking chunks out of the bridge that the four of them were crossing. River fired backward while running, not hitting much, but discouraging them from following too closely.

They got to the wormhole chamber, and River quickly took out the two guards outside the large metal doors. "Get those open!" the Doctor yelled. "River… Give me your gun."

River stopped in her tracks, stunned. She narrowed her eyes. "Just what are you planning, Love?"

"Trust me, River!" the Doctor said impatiently. "I know what I'm doing."

River handed over her staser and ran to help Dan and Phoenix with the heavy doors.

The Doctor sighted along the staser, watching the Rutan guards approach to within firing range. He looked back over his shoulders to where they'd managed to get the doors open about a foot or so. "Go, now! Get in!" he yelled. He turned back and tightened his grip on the gun. He fired two shots, one at the base of each of the statues. The two enormous statues began to fall straight toward him, and he turned to run.

He ran as fast as he could and slipped between the doors just as the statues collided with them, slamming them shut just behind him. The Doctor blew imaginary smoke off the end of the gun and threw it back to River. "That should hold them for a while," he said. "Let's go home."

The Doctor, Dan, Phoenix and River were flung from the gullet of the wormhole into the basement room at the Mission. There were two guards present, but they were caught surprised by the quartet suddenly appearing. River got the drop on them and shot the two dead.

"Let's cool that pistol, now," the Doctor said. "No more violence until they've been given a chance." River holstered her gun without a word. The Doctor zipped up his hoodie and straightened out the hem. "Now. Let's go find Pandora," he said and stepped out of the room.

He counted off the doors that he knew led back to either the wormhole room or the laboratory, which left the two at the end near the stairs. He stopped with a worried expression on his face.

"What's the matter?" Dan asked.

"They would have posted a guard… Unless…" the Doctor trailed off.

"Unless what?" Phoenix asked.

River put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Unless they no longer had a reason to worry about her," she said softly.

The Doctor stood there for a few more moments, eyes darting between the two doors. Then without a word, he stalked down the corridor and threw open the one on the left. Pandora looked up at him as the door opened. "First time lucky," the Doctor said with a broad grin.

Phoenix, River and Dan caught up with the Doctor as Pandora leapt to her feet and threw her arms around the Doctor. He returned the hug and rested his cheek on her head.

Pandora pulled away. "Doctor! They tried the retrovirus on me! I thought it was just a glass of water, but they stood there expecting something to happen and I figured it must be that! But it didn't work! I pretended it did, because that's what I thought you would want me to do, but now Mr. Stubbins has gone to use it on _all of South England_!" She got a puzzled look on her face. "Why didn't it work on me?"

"We have no time to waste!" the Doctor said and headed out the door toward the stairs.

"But Doctor!" Pandora yelled after him. She leaned out the door. "He's been gone an hour already! He must have deployed it by now!"

The Doctor's shoulders slumped. "Then all we can do is guard that wormhole and make sure reinforcements don't come through before he returns."

#

Some time later, Mr. Stubbins and the other six human-form Rutan returned to the Mission. They headed downstairs to the wormhole to celebrate and spread the good news. They were surprised to find the Doctor leaning nonchalantly against one of the generators. They spread out into the room and saw the other four standing inside.

They raised their arms and advanced on the group. River, quicker than the eye, had her staser out of her holster and pointed at Mr. Stubbins.

"I wouldn't do that, Mr. Stubbins," the Doctor said. "She is a daft hand with that gun. Quick as a Larnex, and an absolutely dead aim."

The Rutan lowered their arms and stood their ground. Mr. Stubbins smiled. "Oh, Doctor, give it up. You've lost already. The retrovirus is working its way through the pipes, and by now a million people or more are infected. Members of Parliament are brushing their teeth before bed to wake up willing slaves. We'll start shipping bottled water to hundreds of countries around the world come tomorrow, and we'll replace world leaders with Rutan within the week. So why fight it? It's sad to see, really."

The Doctor nodded gravely. "It's worse than that, actually." He began to pace. "The virus was set to go airborne in a couple of hours. People who drank the water are getting onto airplanes, heading for holiday or business meetings with other folks around the world. Even now, they're feeling a tickle in the back of their throat, and with the recirculating air onboard planes, infecting the rest of the cabin before they land. They'll get over it quickly enough, but not before passing it on. The Earth will wake up tomorrow to a whole different world. But instead of programming humanity to be your willing slaves, this virus will spread an immunity to all such future attacks. Your Rutan science will never again create a programmable retrovirus that has any hope of affecting humans. No, Mr. Stubbins, I'm afraid it's you that have lost."

The Doctor stopped pacing and looked Mr. Stubbins sympathetically in the eye. "I did warn you not to use it."

Mr. Stubbins shimmered and returned to his Rutan form. Even in this form he looked dejected. "Our place in the Mutter's Spiral… We needed this. The Sontaran will win The War without this strategic locale. Surely you didn't want that?"

"The Sontarans will take Earth, Mr. Stubbins," the Doctor said gravely, "over my dead body."

"We kept the wormhole open to allow you a chance to return home," Pandora said.

"Remember that the next time you think an alliance with humans is impossible. Remember we were the better men today," Dan said with contempt in his eyes.

"Go on home now," the Doctor said. "We'll be dismantling this end the moment you are through. And, just a suggestion. Keep it in mind that humans make better companions than slaves."

The Rutan stepped up to the swirling vortex, one at a time, Mr. Stubbins floating behind them. He stopped just before entering, as if he would say something, but then continued on into the maw.

"So," said Phoenix. "How do we dismantle one of these?"

"Well, we interrupt the power flowing to it — River if you'd do the honours?" the Doctor suggested.

River pointed her gun at the device and destroyed the two cables running from the generators to the wormhole.

"Good. Second, we _run_!" the Doctor cried and hoofed it out of the room. The rest of them were only a beat behind him and followed him up the stairs, down the aisle toward the exit. The Doctor didn't stop in the courtyard either and ran at top speed all the way for the gates. He sonicked the lock and threw them wide open, only turning once he was standing safely on the sidewalk outside.

The others joined him and turned, panting, to watch what would happen. Moments later, the windows of the first floor of the central building shattered and shot out. A cloud of dust blew out through the broken window and into the parking lot. Then the second floor windows shattered, and the third and fourth. The wave spread out to the other buildings as well, breaking all the windows from the central building outward to the edge of the property. The courtyard was covered in broken glass, and car alarms were going off all down the street. The Savior Mission Outreach was silent and still.

Dan turned around with a surprised smile. "I really thought it would-" The Doctor held up one finger. Dan's smile faded and he turned back around.

The courtyard rumbled and the dust and glass danced over the paving bricks. A howling sound could be heard, and the dust began to flow back in through the first floor windows. There were sparks all over the place as electrical cables fell through ceiling tiles and the cubicle walls began to tumble over. Suddenly the central pillar of the building dropped down by a floor, then two, then all the way. The building began to collapse from the center outward, as if felled by precisely placed explosives, put there by a professional demolition team, except for the fact that no dust billowed outward. Then the bricks of the courtyard began to crumble and fall into the expanding pit. The outer building succumbed to the loss of foundation and fell, starting with the closest corner and expanding outward.

As the edge of the pit expanded outward toward them, Pandora took a nervous step backward. The Doctor smiled and patted her shoulder, as if to reassure her of their safety.

All three buildings were gone now, and the crumbling brickwork raced toward them. The Doctor reconsidered and tapped Pandora on the shoulder again and hitched a thumb over his shoulder. The group took a few steps backward, but the crumbling slowed, and finally stopped before touching the sidewalk.

A crowd began gathering around to look at the pit that used to be the Savior Mission Outreach. The Doctor and the others ducked out and wandered down the street.

"Look!" Phoenix said in delight, "It's snowing!"

The Doctor turned toward her with a smile on his face as they continued down the sidewalk. "That's to be expected. The atmospheric disturrrrr… nobody cares… Yes. It's snowing."

"I love when it snows around Christmas," Phoenix said, sticking out her tongue to catch a particularly large flake.

"Me too!" Pandora agreed. "Been ages since it snowed on Christmas with how warm it's been."

"What do you mean? Warm?" Phoenix asked.

Pandora shot a careful expression at the Doctor. "Well, you know. Where we're from." She changed the subject before anyone could ask where that was. "I wonder if it'll stick!"

"Oh, I hope it does!" Phoenix enthused.

The group continued on through the snowy streets back to the warehouse basement that Phoenix and Dan had been calling home for the past week.

"I think we'd best be going," the Doctor said kindly. "River, if you could give us a lift?"

"It would be my pleasure, Love," she purred.

"Will we ever see you again?" Phoenix asked.

"You never can tell," the Doctor said.

"You should come see a show if you're in town, you know, once Dan gets a band again," Phoenix told Pandora.

Pandora said, "I promise I will," and gave Phoenix a hug.

Phoenix broke the hug with wide eyes and a sudden idea. "Wait right here," she said and ran off.

River stepped close and said. "It was 2016, right?" She pressed a few buttons on her vortex manipulator. "Hold on to me," she said.

Phoenix came running and thrust an album into Pandora's hands. "Here," she said. "We've already listened to it a hundred times. I hope you'll like it, and think of us when you play it."

Pandora smiled. It was Fishbone. "Thank you, Phoenix. I will."

Phoenix rolled her eyes. "Oh, Phoenix is for strangers. My real name is Maddie. Maddie Sladen. Look me up!" she said and waved them goodbye.

River pushed a button on the vortex manipulator, and they vanished in a cloud of sparks.

#

A split second later they reappeared in Grosvenor Square of 2016.

"Mum?" Pandora said in a trembling voice.

River and the Doctor looked at her.

"Wait!" Pandora said, eyes beginning to water. "That was my mum! And… dad?"

She took several steps back away from them. " _What was that_? What was that _whole thing_?" She pointed the album accusingly at the Doctor. "Did you know that was them? Did you take me there on purpose? Oh! That time back at the library — You weren't thinking up dog names, you were looking at missing person reports weren't you? I knew Sadie wasn't a dog's name, it's _my_ name. Sadie Sladen!"

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but Pandora wasn't done. "What was this supposed to do? You wanted me to see that my mum was homeless at my age? That we have so much in common? You had no right!" She turned the album on River. Tears were now streaming down her face. "And don't you stand there looking so smug! I know you were in on it too. The whole thing started with that 'Hello Sweetie' napkin — Oh, very clever! You suckered me right in. And that record collection wasn't just _like_ my dad's, it _was_ my dad's. The reason I didn't recognize Fishbone is because _she gave it to me_! This was how it _always_ happened!"

She put both hands to her head and walked a few paces. "Oh my god. My parents met me when they were kids!" She dropped her hands limply to her sides and turned back to face them. "My mum has a tattoo of a _bird_ all across her back," she said, almost numbly.

"Well," River said. "I can see you two have a lot to talk about." She pressed several buttons on her vortex manipulator, then said, "See you last time." She pressed a final button and disappeared in a cloud of sparks.

"Pandora, I — Ahhh!" The Doctor felt a sudden searing pain in his abdomen.

"Doctor! What is it," Pandora asked, suddenly concerned for him.

"Burning!" he yelled. He lifted up his hoodie and his shirt, but his stomach was fine. He then felt inside his pocket and pulled out his Tardis key, only, it was different. It was glowing white-hot, but already the glow was fading. As the glow diminished, its shape was more readily obvious. The head was hexagonal with the constellation of Kasterborous inlayed, while the shaft was triangular with small holes down each of the three sides.

"Yes!" the Doctor yelled, snatching the key tightly in his fist.

"What are you 'yes'ing about now?" Pandora asked, wiping the tears from her face.

"The Tardis! She's ready to let me back in! Looks like _she_ at least approves of what I did," the Doctor said. "Oh, Pandora! Today, the adventure truly begins! I can't wait to show you the Medusa Cascade! Or, or, or the beaches of Eventide! And why not? It's been long enough — how'd you like to meet Rudyard Kipling? You and I are going to see the universe together Pandora!"

"I'm not going with you," Pandora said quietly.

"What? Why? Do you really feel so betrayed about meeting your mum? Come on, Pandora," the Doctor argued.

"No, Doctor, that's not it. I can forgive you that. I mean, I understand why you did it. I'm still angry, but I get it. And you're right. Maybe my mum does know a thing or two about stuff. About what I'm going through." She chuckled, then sniffed and wiped her face again. "You know, I always used to think my mum was just born strict and clueless. Now I'm thinking maybe her experiences made her like that."

She held up the album. "And now we really do have something to talk about, right?" She nodded, as if answering a question that hasn't been asked. "I'm going to go see her. It's almost Christmas, and all of a sudden, I really miss her."

The Doctor walked over to Pandora and wrapped his arms around her in a big hug. They stood there like that for a while, silent aside from Pandora's occasional sniffling.

When she spoke next, her voice was muffled because she was talking through the fabric of the Doctor's hoodie. "I just want to say goodbye to Obelix first."

#

With Pandora gone for the past several days, Blaise had been watching Obelix. The Doctor and Pandora met up with him so Pandora could say her goodbyes.

Obelix started whining as soon as he saw Pandora. She smiled sadly as she approached the dog. "Hey there, big boy! Vem är en bra pojke? Who's a good boy?" She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm going to miss you, boy," she said.

"You going somewhere?" Blaise asked.

Pandora looked up at him with that same sad smile while she rubbed the wrinkly fur between Obelix's shoulders. "Yeah. I'm going to go see my mum," she said.

"Oh, wow," Blaise said. "Like, for good?"

"We'll see. I'm not making any promises," Pandora said. "I'm really nervous."

"Hey, don't be," Blaise said. "She loves you right? And she's been looking for you for, what? Two years?"

"Yeah, two years," Pandora confirmed. "Coming up on three." She stood up. "Alright. If I don't go now, I'll chicken out. Be good, Obelix," she said, backing away, her box in one hand, and the Fishbone album in the other.

Blaise took hold of Obelix's collar so that he wouldn't follow Pandora. He waved to her. "Good luck," he said.

"And you," Pandora replied. "Oh, and Spaceman, you should still totally do your Tardis thing." Then she turned and ran.

The Doctor, Blaise and Obelix watched her go for a while.

Blaise finally broke the silence. "'Do your Tardis thing'?" he asked.

"Yes. My time and space ship. We were going to take her for a spin before…" the Doctor trailed off, watching Pandora go.

"Could I go?" Blaise asked.

"Hmm?" the Doctor asked, looking around. He seemed to see Blaise there for the first time. The Doctor looked down at his fist and slowly opened up his fingers to reveal the key there. He began to smile, then looked back at Blaise. "Sure. Why not?"

"Thank you Doctor! You won't regret it!" He held out his hands in a stalling motion. "Wait right here. I've got to get Obelix back to the Swede, but I'll be right back."

The Doctor's smile widened even further, and he tossed the key in the air and caught it again. "No need. Obelix can come too." He held out the key. "Now or never Blaise. Want to see the universe?"

"Obelix," Blaise said with a smile, "Kom!"


End file.
